Floor cleaning pad

ABSTRACT

A reversible hard-floor cleaning pad for use with super high speed and ultra high speed machines. The pad includes a first porous non-woven air-layered web having an upper, floor-cleaning surface and an opposite lower surface. The upper cleaning surface is adapted to clean hard surface floors, such as wood or vinyl, when placed on the floor and rotated by a flooring machine about a vertical axis passing through the center of the first web at super high speeds of at least 1000 revolutions per minute. A second porous non-woven air-layered web having a lower, floor cleaning surface and an opposite upper surface is disposed parallel to and spaced from the first web with the first web lower surface facing the second web upper surface. The second web lower cleaning surface is also adapted to clean hard surface floors when placed on the floor and rotated at super high speeds. A flexible wet-laid non-woven strata layer having uniform directional strength and an upper layer surface and an opposite lower layer surface is positioned between the first and second webs. The first web lower surface is glued directly to the upper layer surface and the second web upper surface directly to the lower layer surface with an elastomer, resin-reinforced non-flammable adhesive. A multi-layer reversible pad is thereby formed having generally uniform strength in all horizontal directions thereby eliminating the tearing and shredding problem previously experienced. Also, a method for making this pad.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to floor cleaning pads used to clean hard surfacefloors such as wood or vinyl. It more particularly relates to such floorcleaning pads formed of non-woven webs and which are used on the presentgeneration of super or ultra high speed flooring machines which rotateat speeds greater than 1000 revolutions per minute.

In the past it was known to make one-quarter inch floor cleaning padssuch as has been made by 3M Corporation for a number of years. The nextdevelopment of floor cleaning pads was to take the pads and glue themtogether, then roll them into jelly-donut shapes and cut them intoone-inch thick members. However, these pads tended to unravel or spinapart. The so-called garnett method has been used primarily in Italy andtwo layers of mechanically-layered fibers are glued directly togetheraccording to this method. Each of these layers, however, due to themanufacturing technique had differential strengths and experienced thesame problems as air-layering as discussed next.

The next development in floor cleaning pads was the so-calledair-layered non-woven process, such as is described in U.S. Pat. No.4,162,344, the contents of which are incorporated by reference in theirentirety. This is a method of randomly distributing the non-wovenfibers, air layering them, then spraying them with a resin and binder,and cutting them to size. However, this method results in the bottomlayer of the air-layered web having a shingled effect wherein thesurface fibers are at least partially aligned. This shingling tends toweaken the surface and also to present an undesirable appearance. Theopposite surface whose fibers are randomly distributed is the preferredouter cleaning surface. Additonally, these pads have perpendicularlongitudinal directions of differential strength. This differentialstrength was generally of no significant consequence until the recentdevelopments of the super high speed flooring machines.

The old flooring machines were designed to rotate at 175 revolutions perminute. This generation was followed by the 325 machines, the so-calledhigh speed machines. The next jump was to the 1000 rpm machines, thesuper high speed machines. These are not used for stripping or scrubbingwhere water is involved as the water is thrown every which way. However,they are very good for buffing or spray buffing or recoating andfinishing. In other words, they are used just to maintain the floor. Thenext development in the machines was the 1500 rpm machine, which wasfollowed by the 2500 propane machine which had its self-containedpropane tanks and did not need an electric cord. The next developmentwas the 2000 rpm electric motor machines. These last three machines arevery quick and good for maintaining a high gloss, or wet look which ispreferred in most public facilities. The history of floor care machinesis set forth in "The Road to Ultra High Speed Buffing: Propane BuffersBoost Speeds to Over 2,000 RPM", CM Cleaning Management Magazine, April1984, page 65, the contents of which are hereby incorporated byreference in their entirety.

With the development of these super high speed machines, thedifferential in the strengths of the floor pads has caused a number ofproblems. When the floor pads are subjected to these very high spinningcentrifugal forces the pads tend to elongate in their weaker direction.This causes an "ovaling" of the pads and, when the pad hits any objecton the floor, the ovaled portion will tear and shred. These pads willlast only an average of 2 to 6 hours at these new speeds. If it does nothit anything it will eventually spread and shred. Additionally, theovaling will cause the pad to expand towards the fiberglass housingportion of the floor machine and impact it thereby tearing the pad.Additionally, when the pads elongate or oval, the flooring machines canvibrate or wobble. Also, if the pad totally shreds, some flooringmachines will then impact the floor and mar or burn it.

Janitorial services often are locked (for security purposes) in thebuilding at the beginning of the night to clean the floors, restrooms,and so forth and then let out in the morning. If the janitoral servicesunexpectedly run out of the floor cleaning pads due for example to theirtearing or shredding, the workers are unable to leave the building toget new pads and thus cannot clean the floors that night.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention toprovide a novel hard-surface floor cleaning pad adapted to clean hardfloors such as wood and vinyl.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved floorcleaning pad adapted for use with super high speed machines, whichrotate at speeds greater than 1000 rpms.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel floorcleaning pad having cleaning surfaces formed from webs of nonwovenmaterial which will not unevenly elongate or oval and thereby tear orshred when used at those super high speeds.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide animproved floor cleaning pad which lasts longer than prior cleaning pads.

Another object is to provide an improved reversible floor cleaning padwhich better resists tearing and shredding.

A further object is to provide an improved floor cleaning pad which iseasy and economical to construct.

A still further object is to provide a novel method for making animproved hard-surface floor cleaning pad used on super high speed orultra-high speed flooring machines.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become moreapparent to those persons having ordinary skill in the art from thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a floor cleaning pad embodying thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line 2--2 of FIG.1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the pad of FIG. 1 havingthe upper layer shown lifted from the middle layer for illustrativepurposes.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a spray method of making the floorcleaning pad of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of an alternative spray method with an ovendry.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of an alternative foaming method.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of an alternative two-pass foam method.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of an alternative submersion method.

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of an alternative resin-spraying method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, a reversible floor cleaning pad shown generally at20 embodying the present invention is illustrated. Floor cleaning pad 20is configured to have a circular configuration in its top plan view tofit the current design of super high or ultra-high speed floor cleaningmachines, such as the "Pioneer `1700` Super Hi-Speed Propane-PoweredFloor Buffer", the "Multi-Clean 2000 Floor Machine, the "32-inchPropane" of Diamond Speed Buff Company of Pittsburg, Calif., the "27"Clasic Propane High Speed Buffer", or "Spirit 2700", 37 The Classic11-24" by American Speed Buff Mfg. Co. Pad 20 has a central portion 22which has been dye cut and can be removed thereby providing an opening24 through which it can be connected to the floor cleaning machines. Pad20 can be mounted to these machines by a suitable easily detachablemeans such as by a snap ring unit or a bolt unit passing through opening24 or adhering directly to machine brushes.

Pad 20, very generally, comprises three layers bonded together. Thefirst upper layer 26 is a porous, non-woven, air-layered web of materialsuch as is formed according to the method described in the incorporatedpatent. Any suitable fibers can be used to form the web either syntheticfibers such as nylon, polyester, or rayon, or natural fibers such as pigbristle or horse hair or it can comprise a high-loft media. It has anupper surface 28 and a lower surface 30. The web of material ispositioned so that its shingled surface defines its lower surface 30 andits random-fiber surface defines its upper floor cleaning surface 28 asbest shown in FIG. 2.

The lower layer or web 32 comprises a similar web of porous non-wovenair-layered material. It similarly is positioned so that its shingledsurface forms its upper surface 34 and its random fiber surface definesits lower floor cleaning surface 38. Thus, as best shown in FIG. 2 bothof the random surfaces are positioned on the outside surfaces of pad 20thereby exposing the preferred floor cleaning surfaces as well aspresenting a uniform appearance of both sides of this reversible pad.

The middle strata layer 40 is constructed from a thin flexible wet-layednon-woven strata layer having uniform directional strength in alllongitudinal directions. Strata layer 40 can be formed of paper, synvar,typar, scrim, duck or screen wire. It provides the uniform dimensionalstrength to pad 20 to prevent elongation or ovaling of the pad in itsweaker direction when used on super high or ultrahigh speed machines.Even if the upper and lower layers 26, 32 were positioned directlytogether with their weaker directions at 90° to each other, the 45°direction therebetween would still present a slightly weaker directionwhich would result in elongation of the pad. The presentdimensionally-stable middle strata layer 40 positioned therebetweenprevents the elongation and ovaling and shredding and tearing previouslyexperienced by floor cleaning pads. It is expected that the presentlayered pad 20 will last at least 20 hours cleaning hard surface floorsat super high speeds without shredding or tearing.

It is also within the scope of the present invention to have upper andlower layers 26 and 32 formed differently. For example one may be formedof natural fibers and the other of synthetic fibers. Also the resinsused to impregnate one web or layer can include an abrasive so thatlayer can be used for cleaning and the other for high speed buffing.

The first web lower surface 30 is bonded to the upper layer surface 42and the lower web upper surface 34 is bonded directly to the lower layersurface 44 using suitable adhesives and by methods as described ingreater detail later. Any suitable adhesive or glue can be used, such asan elastomer type, resin reinforced, non-flammable adhesive, which is arubbery-type of glue, such as styrene butadyne. An example of suchadhesive is the one made of Swift Adhesives & Coatings, the so-called18248 Adhesive. Generally, three steps are involved in the bondingprocess. First the adhesive must be applied to one or both of theadjacent surfaces to be bonded. The second step is that the surfacesmust be pressed or married together. The third step is that the gluemust then be dried, either oven or air-dried.

One method of bonding is illustrated schematically in FIG. 4 wherein thefirst and second webs comprise non-woven material previously coated withsuitable resins and binders and rolled in rolls 50 and 52. Rolls 50, 52are positioned so that the upper roll 50 rolls out on its lower surface30 and the lower roll rolls out on its upper surface 34. The stratalayer 40 is in its rolled form in a roll 54 and is positioned betweenthe two webs 26, 34. As the rollers 56 pull the three layers away fromtheir rolls, 50, 52, 54, the interior sides of the webs are sprayed bysprayers 56 with the adhesive and the outer surfaces of the strata layerare sprayed by sprayers 58 with the adhesive. The rolls in addition tomoving the layers away from the rolls will slightly compress the threesprayed layers together thereby causing them to stick together. Thethree-layered pad 64 formed thereby is then transported to a drying roomwhere it can be air dried for a few hours to a day or so. When suitablydried, pad 64 is then dye cut into its circular shape with the centerportion 22, as illustrated in FIG. 1, cut as well.

FIG. 5 illustrates a variation of the method of FIG. 4 and uses an oven66 to dry the pressed three-layer pad. The oven can be set atapproximately 250° and it would take only about five minutes to dry pad64 as it is conveyed through it.

The method of FIG. 6 is similar to that of FIG. 5 except that theadhesive 68 is an aerated or foam-like state and is applied byapplicators 70 only to the upper layer surface 42 of the middle stratalayer and the upper surface 34 of the lower web. To apply it to theupper surfaces of the layers would not be effective inasmuch as the foamwould not stick adequately and fall off. Similarly, the layers are thenrolled together by rollers 56 and passed through oven 66 and then dried,and cut to shape. An advantage of this foam method is that it requiresless moisture than the glue method and thus uses less liquid, and alsoby foaming you can get more material over a square yard.

FIG. 7 illustrates a variation of the method of FIG. 8 wherein aso-called two-pass foaming method is used to form reversible pad 20. Asshown, the foam is first applied to the upper surface 42 of the middleweb 26 by applicator 70 and then the upper web and the middle stratalayer 40 are rolled together by rollers and dried in oven 66. The twolayer material shown as 72 is then inverted through a series of rollers74 and the foam applied by applicator 76 to the outer side of the web,which is now its upper surface. Then the other web 34 is pressed to itby rollers 78 and the three layer pad 64 passes through the drying oven.

FIG. 8 illustrates yet another method of forming floor cleaning pad 20.Referring thereto, it is seen that the middle strata layer 40 is firstsubmersed via rollers 80 in a bath 82 of adhesive material therebycoating both sides. The coated strata layer then passes through a pairof metering rollers 84 which meters the excess adhesive off of thesurfaces back into bath 82. Then the opposed rolls 50, 52 of formed webare umwound onto opposing sides of the middle strata layer, pressed byrollers 56, and oven dried.

FIG. 9 shows a different method of forming the present floor cleaningpad. It is seen that the web 86 of non-porous air-layered non-wovenmaterial is emerging from the so-called Rando machine shownschematically at 88 as described in the incorporated patent. At thispoint the web has not been sprayed with its resins and binders. Theresins and binders are then sprayed by sprayers 90 through the uppersurface of the web and penetrate its lower surface onto the strata layer40 which is positioned below and on top of suitable rollers 94. The twolayers then pass through the drying oven 66. They are then invertedthrough a series of rollers 96. A second roll 98 of non-wovenair-layered material prior to being sprayed with the resins and bindersis then unrolled and positioned adjacent the exposed opposite surface ofthe strata layer, by roller 100. The resins and binders are then sprayedby sprayers 102 through the outer surface of the second web until theypenetrate the lower surface of the web onto the strata layer therebycausing the web fibers to adhere directly to the strata layer exposedsurface. The three layer pad 64 is then passed through the drying oven.The resins and binders thus act as the bonding adhesive. A multilayerreversible pad adapted to clean hard surface floors at super high speedswithout elongating and shredding is thereby formed.

From the foregoing detailed description, it will be evident that thereare a number of changes, adaptations and modifications of the presentinvention which come within the province of those skilled in the art.However, it is intended that all such variations not departing from thespirit of the invention be considered as within the scope thereof aslimited solely by the appended claims.

I claim:
 1. A reversible hard-floor cleaning pad comprising:a firstporous non-woven air-layered web having an upper, floor-cleaning surfaceand an opposing lower surface, said first web upper cleaning surfacebeing adapted to clean hard surface floors when placed on the floor androtated about a vertical axis passing through the center of said firstweb at super high speeds of at least 1000 revolutions per minute, asecond porous non-woven air-layered web having a lower, floor cleaningsurface and an opposite upper surface, said second web lower cleaningsurface being adapted to clean hard surface floors when placed on thefloor and rotated about said vertical axis at super high speeds of atleast 1000 revolutions per minute, said second web being disposedparallel to and spaced from said first web with said first web lowersurface facing said second web upper surface, a flexible wet-laidnonwoven strata layer having uniform directional strength and an upperlayer surface and an opposite lower layer surface, said strata layerbeing disposed between said first web and said second web, and a bondingmeans for bonding said first web lower surface directly to said upperlayer surface and said second web upper surface directly to said lowerlayer surface, said first web, said strata layer, said second web, andsaid bonding means defining a hard-floor cleaning pad having generaluniform strength in all directions perpendicular to said vertical axis,so as not to distort at said super high speeds.
 2. The floor cleaningpad of claim 1 including,said first web having an air-layered shingledsurface and an opposite non-shingled random fiber surface, and saidshingled surface being positioned so as to form said opposite lowersurface.
 3. The floor cleaning pad of claim 1 including,said first webhaving a first longitudinal structural direction and a secondlongitudinal structural direction disposed perpendicular to said firstdirection and having at least 20% greater strength than the strength ofsaid first direction.
 4. The floor cleaning pad of claim 1including,said first web being coated with a thermo-set resin binder. 5.The floor cleaning pad of claim 1 including,a connecting means forconnecting said first web to a floor machine adapted to rotate saidfloor cleaning pad about said vertical axis at speeds of at least 1000revolutions per minute with said second web lower surface engaging thehard surface floor in a rapid circular cleaning motion.
 6. The floorcleaning pad of claim 5 including,said connecting means including avertical opening passing through said first web, said strata layer, andsaid second web.
 7. The floor cleaning pad of claim 1 including,saidfirst and second webs being formed of natural fibers.
 8. The floorcleaning pad of claim 7 including, said natural fibers comprising pigbristle.
 9. The floor cleaning pad of claim 7 including, said naturalfibers comprising horse hair.
 10. The floor cleaning pad of claim 1including,said first and second webs being formed of synthetic fibers.11. The floor cleaning pad of claim 10 including,said synthetic fibersbeing selected from the group of nylon, polyester, and rayon.
 12. Thefloor cleaning pad of claim 1 including,said first and second webs eachcomprising non-woven high loft media.
 13. The floor cleaning pad ofclaim 1 including,said first and second webs being coated with a binderand with a resin.
 14. The floor cleaning pad of claim 1 including, saidstrata layer being formed of paper.
 15. The floor cleaning pad of claim1 including, said strata layer being formed of a scrim material.
 16. Thefloor cleaning pad of claim 1 including, said bonding means includingstyrene butadyne.
 17. The floor cleaning paid of claim 1 including,saidbonding means including an elastomer, resin-reinforced non-flammableadhesive.
 18. The floor cleaning pad of claim 1 including,said first webincluding a resin coating, and said bonding means including said resincoating bonding the lower fibers of said first web lower surfacedirectly to said upper layer surface.
 19. The floor cleaning paid ofclaim 1 including,said first web being formed of natural fibers, andsaid second web being formed of synthetic fibers.
 20. The floor cleaningpad of claim 1 including,said first and second webs being coated with athermo-set resin binder system including a resin selected from the groupof pheonilic resin, styrene butadyne, melomine and acrylics.
 21. Thefloor cleaning pad of claim 1 including,said first web being coated witha resin mixed with an abrasive. .Iadd.
 22. A hard-floor cleaning padcomprising,a porous non-woven air-layered web having a lower, floorcleaning surface and an opposite upper surface, said web lower cleaningsurface being adapted to clean hard surface floors when placed on afloor and rotated about a vertical axis passing through the center ofsaid web at speeds of at least 1000 revolutions per minute, a flexiblewet-laid non-woven strata layer having uniform directional strength, anda lower surface, and means for bonding said upper web surface directlyto said lower strata layer surface, said web, strata layer and bondingmeans defining an article having general uniform strength in alldirections perpendicular to said vertical axis so as not to distort uponrotation at said speeds. .Iaddend. .Iadd.23. A floor cleaning padaccording to claim 22 including, said web having an air-layered shingledsurface and an opposite non-shingled random fiber surface, and saidshingled surface being positioned so as to form said upper surface..Iaddend. .Iadd.24. A floor cleaning pad according to claim 22including, said web having a first longitudinal structural direction anda second longitudinal structural direction disposed perpendicular tosaid first direction and having at least twenty percent greater strengththan the strength in said first direction. .Iaddend. .Iadd.25. A floorcleaning pad according to claim 22 including,means for connecting saidweb to a floor machine adapted to rotate said floor cleaning pad aboutsaid vertical axis at speeds of at least 1000 revolutions per minutewith said web lower surface engaging the hard surface floor in a rapidcircular cleaning motion. .Iaddend. .Iadd.26. A floor cleaning padaccording to claim 22 wherein said web is formed of natural fibers..Iaddend. .Iadd.27. A floor cleaning pad according to claim 22 whereinsaid web is formed of synthetic fibers. .Iaddend. .Iadd.28. A floorcleaning pad according to claim 22 wherein said web is formed of anon-woven high loft media. .Iaddend. .Iadd.29. A floor cleaning padaccording to claim 22 wherein said strata layer is formed of paper..Iaddend. .Iadd.30. A floor cleaning pad according to claim 22 whereinsaid strata layer is formed of a scrim material. .Iaddend.